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FLIP 4 MAC sucks... Apple needs to find a WMP solution...

R

rxl125

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 15, 2006
244
0
I have made the change, but a windows media player is needed for many applications I still like (like radiomat.com radio stations). They are the top stations in all the USA (AM). There are some geeky workarounds to make it work, but the average consumer would have no idea how to do this (post the stream link into quicktime).

Flip 4 mac has known about this problem for over a year and have not been able to fix it! Apple should give the company some support so an important application like this works!
 
rxl125 said:
I have made the change, but a windows media player is needed for many applications I still like (like radiomat.com radio stations). They are the top stations in all the USA (AM). There are some geeky workarounds to make it work, but the average consumer would have no idea how to do this (post the stream link into quicktime).

Flip 4 mac has known about this problem for over a year and have not been able to fix it! Apple should give the company some support so an important application like this works!
Click to expand...

Very true I hate Flip4Mac
 
rxl125 said:
I have made the change, but a windows media player is needed for many applications I still like (like radiomat.com radio stations). They are the top stations in all the USA (AM). There are some geeky workarounds to make it work, but the average consumer would have no idea how to do this (post the stream link into quicktime).

Flip 4 mac has known about this problem for over a year and have not been able to fix it! Apple should give the company some support so an important application like this works!
Click to expand...

You mean "Microsoft should give this company some support." Flip4Mac works very well for the formats it supports, Microsoft own the whole wmv/wma universe - they're the ones who you should be talking to.

Apple supports standards, windows media is not a standard, it's a proprietary format owned by Microsoft. If you want your sites to work, either ask the site to use a proper streaming standard rather than something licensed from MS or ask MS to release more functionality to the folks who make Flip4Mac.

It's not Apple's fault that a 3rd party program can't handle proprietary formats that they're not allowed to use.
 
If I want to open a Microsoft Word document in IWORK I can... Don't give apple a free pass on this one... they have a good relationship with Microsoft, get it done apple!
 
rxl125 said:
If I want to open a Microsoft Word document in IWORK I can... Don't give apple a free pass on this one... they have a good relationship with Microsoft, get it done apple!
Click to expand...

Word documents are not encoded behind a DRM wall. WMV streams can be. Apple cannot reverse engineer around this without potentially violating the DMCA. It should not be up to Apple to support Microsofts proprietary products. Apple produce Quicktime for Windows. Microsoft should produce a viable working WMV player for OSX.
 
I've never had a problem opening .wmv's with Flip4Mac, and haven't had even fewer codec bumps since VLC. Though I wouldn't mind a QTP that would handle MS's files, I think Microsoft has a little bit of work to do here.
 
this is an intel mac problem... if you don't believe it's a problem ... got to 610wip.com and try it out...
 
i'm listening to it right now via putting safari in rosetta mode and wmp works for this station...
 
people who aren't having trouble with flip have ppc not intel macs
 
For online radio stations neitehr Flip4Mac or Perian worked for me (especially not with .asx), but the A52 codec did.

I have all three and I only know of two formats that I can't open:
.swf (I use Safari)
Matroska (it's cool, but I prefer DVD's).;)
 
rxl125 said:
There are some geeky workarounds to make it work, but the average consumer would have no idea how to do this (post the stream link into quicktime).
Click to expand...

Yes that does seem to be a Flip4Mac bug, however it isn't Apple's job to fix bugs in other applications.
 
robbieduncan said:
Word documents are not encoded behind a DRM wall. WMV streams can be. Apple cannot reverse engineer around this without potentially violating the DMCA. It should not be up to Apple to support Microsofts proprietary products. Apple produce Quicktime for Windows. Microsoft should produce a viable working WMV player for OSX.
Click to expand...
Your argument may work fine with techies like us that know the 'why', but it doesn't play well for those new switchers that have always heard that Apples "just work". In this case they don't. Never mind the reasoning, the fact remains that to them it is just another nail in Apple's coffin, since somebody convinced them to give it a try and they immediately stumbled onto this (among other things).

rxl125 said:
There are some geeky workarounds to make it work, but the average consumer would have no idea how to do this (post the stream link into quicktime).
Click to expand...
This is why Apple must try harder, because they are fighting an uphill battle that, unfair as it may seem to some, is real to an end user.
 
Flip4Mac needs to get DRM support working - everything else has been fine for me on my PPC.
 
Sdashiki said:
but doesnt it take at least 10x the amount of time to open as a similar sized mpg or avi?
Click to expand...
Try disabling "Open local files immediately" in the Flip4Mac prefs. Not perfect, but better.

Josias said:
For online radio stations neitehr Flip4Mac or Perian worked for me (especially not with .asx), but the A52 codec did.
Click to expand...
What online radio station is retarded enough to stream AC3?
 
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